Alt text (short for alternative text) is a written description attached to an image. It is read aloud by screen readers for people who are blind or have low vision, shown when an image fails to load, and used by search engines to understand what an image shows. Good alt text makes your website more accessible and gives Google more context, which can help your pages and images appear in search. Bad alt text, stuffed with keywords or left as “IMG_2048”, helps no one.
This article is part of our complete guide: SEO for Small Business: The Complete Guide (2026).
When we audited mivaq.com before launch, we checked every image on every URL for alt text. It is a basic standard we apply to every site we build, and it is one of the quickest wins in any on-page SEO audit.
How alt text works
In HTML it is the alt attribute: <img src="oak-kitchen.jpg" alt="Oak shaker kitchen with white quartz worktops">. Content management systems give you a field for it when you upload or select an image. Visitors do not see it unless the image fails or they use assistive technology.
Why alt text matters
Accessibility
Millions of people use screen readers. Without alt text, they hear the file name or nothing at all, and miss information that sighted visitors take for granted. Accessibility is also a legal expectation in many countries for businesses offering services to the public.
SEO
Google cannot fully “see” images the way people do. Alt text, together with file names, captions and surrounding text, helps it understand what an image shows and how it relates to the page. That supports both normal web rankings and Google Images visibility.
Linked images
When an image is a link, its alt text acts like anchor text, describing the destination.
How to write good alt text
- Describe what is in the image as you would to someone on the phone.
- Be specific about the important details: what, who, where, doing what.
- Think about context. The same photo might need different alt text on different pages, depending on why it is there.
- Keep it concise. Usually one sentence, often under about 125 characters, though there is no strict limit.
- Include keywords only when they describe the image. If the photo shows a loft conversion in Stockport, saying so is accurate and useful.
- Skip “image of” or “photo of”. Screen readers already announce it is an image.
- Do not repeat the caption word for word if a caption already describes the image.
Examples: weak vs. good
- Weak: “dog”. Good: “Two spaniels playing tug of war in the daycare garden”.
- Weak: “kitchen kitchens kitchen fitter Bristol”. Good: “Navy shaker kitchen with brass handles fitted in a Bristol terrace house”.
- Weak: “IMG_0042”. Good: “Bride and groom laughing under a tree after their ceremony at a Cotswolds barn”.
- Weak: “team”. Good: “The repair team at work on laptop motherboards in our Manchester workshop”.
- Weak: “screenshot”. Good: “Search Console Page indexing report showing 120 pages crawled but not indexed”.
Special cases
Decorative images
Background patterns, dividers and purely decorative graphics should have empty alt text (alt=""), so screen readers skip them. Most builders let you mark images as decorative.
Logos
Use the company name, for example “MIVAQ”, or “MIVAQ home” if the logo links to the homepage. For client logo walls, the client’s name is enough.
Product images
Include the product name and what the specific image shows: “Oak chopping board, side view showing end-grain pattern”. Each angle should have different alt text.
Images containing text
If an image contains important text, such as an offer or a quote, the alt text should include that text. Better still, use real text on the page instead of text inside images.
Charts and infographics
Summarise the key message in the alt text (“Bar chart showing organic traffic doubling from January to June”) and provide the full data in nearby text or a table.
Icons and buttons
Functional images such as a search icon need alt text describing the action: “Search”, not “magnifying glass”.
Alt text mistakes that hurt
- Keyword stuffing, which harms accessibility and looks manipulative.
- Identical alt text on every image on a page.
- Leaving file names or camera codes.
- Describing decorative images in detail, which slows screen reader users.
- Using alt text for information that should be in the visible text.
How to add alt text on each platform
- WordPress: in the Media Library, fill in the “Alternative Text” field, or in the block editor’s image settings. Elementor uses the Media Library value by default.
- Wix: select the image, open settings and add the description. See Wix image SEO.
- Squarespace: in image block settings, add the description or filename field used as alt text.
- Shopify: click a product image and choose “Add alt text”.
Auditing alt text across a site
A crawler can list every image missing alt text. Prioritise images on your homepage, service pages, products and top blog posts. For large media libraries, fix new uploads properly from now on and improve older images gradually.
The same photo, different contexts
Context changes what matters in an image. Imagine a photo of a technician replacing a phone screen at a workbench:
- On a service page about screen repairs: “Technician replacing a cracked iPhone screen at our Manchester repair bench”.
- On a careers page: “Repair technician at work in our bright, well-equipped workshop”.
- On a blog post about repair tools: “Precision screwdrivers and suction cup in use during a phone screen replacement”.
Each version describes the same picture, but highlights the detail that serves the page. This is why copying one alt text everywhere, or generating it without context, rarely gives the best result.
Should you use AI to write alt text?
Automated tools can produce a useful first draft, especially for large libraries. Always review the result: automated descriptions are often generic (“a person standing in a room”) and miss the context that makes alt text useful. Add the specific details only you know, like the location, the product name or the project.
Alt text and other image SEO factors
Alt text works best alongside descriptive file names, compressed images, relevant captions and well-written text around the image. For visual businesses, read SEO for photographers. On visually rich projects like Zimasa Vodka and Heather Elizabeth Photography, these basics help image-led pages communicate with search engines as well as visitors.
Related guides and services
- Wix image SEO: alt text, file names and image sizes on Wix.
- On-page SEO audit checklist: a page-by-page checklist for titles, headings, content and links.
- Missing or multiple H1 tags: how to structure headings correctly.
- Title tag SEO guide: formulas and examples for titles that rank and get clicks.
- SEO services: technical, on-page and local SEO for small businesses.
Get expert help
We can audit image accessibility and SEO across your site, write meaningful alt text and fix the images slowing your pages down. Start with our SEO services, browse real client results in our case studies, or contact us for a free, no-pressure review of your website.
Frequently asked questions
Does alt text help SEO?
Yes. It helps Google understand images and their relationship to the page, and supports Google Images visibility.
How long should alt text be?
Long enough to describe the image usefully, usually one short sentence.
Should every image have alt text?
Every meaningful image should. Decorative images should have empty alt text.
Is alt text the same as an image title?
No. The title attribute shows on hover in some browsers and is not a substitute for alt text.
